


(You Won't Be) Homesick for Christmas

by Futsin



Category: Laverne & Shirley (TV)
Genre: Best Friends, California, Christmas, Christmas Morning, Christmas Presents, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Homesickness, Kissing, Mistletoe, Snowball Fight, Temporarily Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27907387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Futsin/pseuds/Futsin
Summary: Realizing her first December in California will be the first one without snow, Laverne feels a mild melancholy. When Lenny notices, he decides to do something about it.
Relationships: Laverne DeFazio/Lenny Kosnowski
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4
Collections: The Laverne and Shirley Holiday Exchange 2020





	(You Won't Be) Homesick for Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amythis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amythis/gifts).



An unexpected sensation ran up her spine as she stopped on the street to turn and look inside the Sav-On Pharmacy window. She lowered her sunglasses at the glass painted with stencils of snowflakes, Frosty, and jolly old Saint Nick. They were pretty good likenesses of the usual Christmas holiday decorations. Yet in the window's reflection of the world behind her, Laverne DeFazio still saw the palm trees, the crisp blue sky, and the sun soaked buildings across the street. She bit her lip at the juxtaposition of false winter in the neverending summer of southwestern California.

Though the excitement and pizazz of her move from Wisconsin was invigorating, it wasn't quite home yet. And the sight of something Laverne thought she could always count on, reduced to decorations in a shop window, gave her pause.  
She sighed, openly, to herself. "Guess we won't have any snowball fights this year." 

Then, turning to her right to continue down the street, she collided with someone she hadn't realized was standing right next to her. "Oof!" The sunglasses in one hand dropped to the ground while her other held fast to the bag of Christmas gifts in the other. Her eyes followed the fallen object as it clattered across the sidewalk. The man who she'd bonked into immediately knelt down to pick them up, revealing a familiar white design on the back of his jacket. _Lone Wolf._

"Lenny?!" she shouted in surprise without thinking, which caused him to suddenly lift his head and almost bonk into her. She backed up a step. Sheepish, he grinned-yet-kind-of-grimaced. "Sorry. Here, ya dropped these." The sunglasses were in his hand, extended up toward her. Even in Laverne's surprise, she couldn't help but notice how bright his hair looked in the sharp winter sunlight. His face was even a bit cleaner. A quick-click of plastic then the tinted lenses were back in her hand and she put them across her face. It helped her hide noticing how much he stared at her, despite just being in a blue tank top and her green slacks. 

He rose, smiling. "Saw you starin' at the window. Anything interesting in there?" He peeked back inside the Sav-On windows, seeing holiday shoppers, a group of kids reading a comic book, and a pharmacist looking exasperated with everything. Laverne shrugged, gesturing at the glass. "Nah. I was just lookin' at the snowflakes they got painted on there. Kinda weird knowing we're not gonna see any snow this Christmas, hanh?" Despite herself, she sounded sad about it. Lenny cocked his head at her, sympathetically nodding. "Yeah. You always could count on it being colder than a Penguin's butt every December in Milwaukee." Reaching to the design on the window, he traced the shape of the snowflakes with his finger.

Laverne nodded. "Anyway, I'm headed home and it's a long way without the car today. See ya around, Len." She started down the sidewalk, but he was at her side in a heartbeat.

"You want a ride?" His voice was immediately shrill and she hated that she cringed so sharply from it. "I mean, I've got the day off today and was just hangin' around and all that-hey, whatcha got?" He made for her bag but she immediately snatched it from his reach. "Ah-ah!" she chided, "no peekin'! I got something real nice for Pop and I don't want you tellin' him what it is."

Lenny frowned. "Why would he even ask me about it?"

"He asks _everybody_ , Len." She wanted to hurry her steps, though she couldn't bring herself to escape from the tall blonde with the ocean blue eyes or to push him away too hard. Sometimes he just had that effect on her, despite her own attempts to keep him at arm's length as a friend, nothing more.

About her father Frank, Lenny went on. "Well, he don't ask me anything. Except what I'm doin' hanging around him for or why are we botherin' him or are we gonna order somethin'." He counted these questions on his fingers toward his forefinger, going pinky-thumb-ring before he stopped that.

After a nervous little pause, punctuated with a fidget of his shoulders, Lenny blurted out, "Say, me and Squig were thinking maybe you and Shirl would like to go out with us on Friday."

Laverne smiled a little, sensing a familiar desperation out of his voice. A tug of something in the heart made her feel a little burn in her eyes that didn't come from the sun bearing down. "I don't know, Len..."

"Oh," he said, dejection for a brief moment before he came back up. "Think about it, will ya?" She nodded and said she would.

"Anyway, I got the truck parked just up the way here." He gestured and there it was, the dingy ice cream truck completely out of place among the nicer cars on San Fernando Boulevard, about a block away. A couple of lone kids were circling around it, clearly with too much time on their hands. When Lenny approached, they got all excited and he shooed them with his hand. "Hey hey, shop's closed today, kiddies. Go on down to the malt shop if ya want somethin'." The keys to the truck jangled in his hand that matched the chorus of small voices crying out for vanilla twist and checkerboards.

A glance back at Laverne and she smiled, seeing a pitiful 'help me' in Lenny's expression. A shrug of her shoulders replied to his plea, 'sure, why not?' So, Len opened up the truck and took a look inside while the kids got their pocket money ready. Laverne slid into the passenger seat, sat her bag of presents between her feet on the floor, and took the kids' orders.

From the interior of the ice cream truck, Lenny yelled out, "We're runnin' low while Squig goes and gets more stock off our supplier! What do ya want?!" And thus the kids shouted orders that Laverne quickly noted with a point of her finger at each kid, taking them all down. Lenny did his best, but they were indeed low and a few half-happy kids paid for whatever they could, desperate to get their icy treat. 

Then came the surreal moment that Lenny thanked them for their business and said, "Merry Christmas, kids!" The six or seven or maybe it was eleven kids yelled the jolly declaration in return. Laverne, meanwhile, noticed she was sweating from the sun blasting through the window. She shivered in a whole weird way and rubbed her arms while Lenny got into the driver's seat next to her. "So. Home?" He paused at her expression, cocked his head.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. It's still weird, you know? My brain tells me we should be bundled under sweaters instead of just sweatin' right now." She turned to Lenny and saw him lookin' at her, with that familiar forlorn look in his eye. His slack mouth pulled into a little smirk, before he nodded at her. "Yeah, I know what you mean," he said, then grinned, winking. "Can't complain about the view right now, though."

He started the truck and it puttered on toward the Laurel Vista Apartments. As they passed by the many stores and houses baked by the sun, the pedestrians in comfortable clothing, yet juxtaposed by the various holiday decorations, Laverne felt a sting of melancholy. She got quiet for a long time, thinking about it.

"Whadda ya miss the most?" Lenny asked out of nowhere.

Laverne smiled, blinked. "The snow. It's terrible to drive through, but it sure is pretty to watch. And it makes the city so... quiet. Tranquil." Resting her chin on her palm, she leaned over to lose herself in a memory as Lenny pulled onto the highway. 

Then, a shiny metal delivery truck caught the sunlight at the right angle, blasting the sharp blinding force right into their faces. Lenny cried out and used one arm to shield his eyes while the other kept the truck steady. Laverne felt it cut through the sunglasses and sighed, exasperated.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful, the two catching up on how their weeks had been since Thanksgiving. Lenny didn't push about the date on Friday, but he did bring it up one last time to be sure as he took the exit onto Laurel Canyon Boulevard. "You're still gonna think about it? You mean it?"

It finally hit her why she'd hesitated before. With a little disappointment of her own, she said, "Friday's Christmas Eve, Len. And you know Edna and my Pop will want us to help out with their soup kitchen thing, since it'll be our first one here." Another moment of dejection was once more followed by a puppy smile, this time accompanied by a twinkle in his eye that made her wonder if he was up to something. 

But then the truck pulled up to the apartment building. Her hands gripped the bag of gifts before she hopped out into what was left the of the day. The sun baked her skin again, but the air was fresher than the stuffy truck. Lenny quickly followed her, coming to walk alongside again.  
"That meal kitchen thing, it runs pretty late, huh? No chance of just catchin' a late late movie? Just the two of us?" Laverne, a little startled, turned to him as she lowered her sunglasses. "I think we're going until about midnight, yeah. I'm sorry." He shrugged, but there was no dismay on his face now. Now, Laverne became suspicious.

Lenny, however, went on. "I guess I'll just cruise around with Squiggy and-" He stopped suddenly. Laverne stopped with him.

His eyes widened.

His jaw dropped.

"Oh dang it, I left Squiggy behind at our supplier on San Fernando!" And off he went the way they'd come, back to the truck. "Sorry, Laverne, was good seein' ya! Almost Merry Christmas!" He waved an arm back at her and she watched him go, gangly legs in tight jeans rambling on while his Lone Wolf jacket with here monogrammed L waving around his body. 

Laverne couldn't help but smile. 

* * * * * * * *

Some days later, it was Friday night and Christmas Eve had arrived. The packages had been wrapped, the tree put up, the lights around the apartment, and even a wreath around their apartment door. Shirley had been insufferable for about two days, constantly fussing and correcting Laverne at every turn, but otherwise had been her usual self; go-getter and determined and chipper. She even offered to help Frank and Edna with the cooking, though was turned down as they opened the annual Christmas Dinner for the needy to being a potluck. There would be plenty, they said, and so Shirley stewed about her lost moment. Laverne patted her on the shoulder every once in a while to make her feel better.

Meanwhile, all throughout the week, since the moment it had hit her by the Sav-On decorations, Laverne was awash in the surreal feeling that truly she had moved from home to somewhere new. Everyone kept asking her what was wrong and she said nothin', nothin', then found something to distract her so she could smile again. It wasn't a deep longing by any means, she knew that, just a reminder that things had changed and even with excitement, there is loss of what once was home, familiar, and reliable.

The evening itself was jam-packed full of a colorful cast of bums and those in varying destitution, though some were simply the new friends of the little family from Knapp Street. These newcomers came bearing their own cooking to donate to Frank's cause of making sure nobody spent the night hungry, cold, and alone. It was a lot like the events they put on at the Pizza Bowl back home, with less familiar faces, but a strong sense of community.

Laverne and Shirley helped clean up after it was all done, making sure to send Frank and Edna home early so they could rest. To their surprise, they'd seen neither Lenny nor Squiggy the entire evening. An uneasy feeling in Laverne's gut said that maybe he really had been up to something with all his question, but Shirley reported seeing Squiggy headed into a department store with a few boxes of ice cream out of their truck the day before. Must have just been busy, Laverne thought, as she finished scrubbing off the pots in the sink.

* * * * * * * *

It was well past midnight and Christmas itself had begun when the girls opened the door to their apartment. They were exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go to bed. Shirley put up their coats while Laverne started on putting away the boxes of plates and cookery they'd brought to her father's dinner. They looked at their tree, all lit up, and the presents underneath. Some nights that Laverne and Shirley shared, they'd stay up late and open their presents just past twelve. That night, they were too exhausted, and merely embraced sleepily, thanked each other for the help they'd both been during the night's festivities, then went into the bedroom.

Shedding her clothes in the bathroom, Laverne felt the bristling of all she'd experienced in the night, from the little bit of wine to the delicious spread of food to the great laughs. She imagined her father patting her cheek as she crawled into bed, calling her muffin, and she pulled the covers over as she glanced at the clock.

1:03AM. December 25th.

"Good night, Shirl," she said. "Merry Christmas."

Shirley murmured the same as she drifted off to sleep.

* * * * * * * *

Laverne slept deep, dreaming of winter wonderlands of years past that never happened. She dreamt of snowball fights in the break room at Shotz Brewery, of making out with a handsome man at Skolneck Pond frozen over, and making snow angels with Shirley outside the old apartment on Knapp Street. Snowflakes fell everywhere, the ground pure white, catching every little bit of light from neon signs and street lamps, turning the world into technicolor delights.

Then she felt a tug of being rolled into a snowball, which was in fact Shirley rousing her from sleep. She blearily opened her eyes and heard the hissing voice of her roomie/best friend/almost-sister. "Someone's in the living room! I just heard rustling in there!"  
Bleary-eyed, Laverne mumbled, "Santa?"

"La- _verrrne,_ " Shirley whined, before asking, "did we unpack the bats yet?" And even in her stupor, she could remember that no, they had certainly not. Adrenaline started pulsing through her body, pushing her out of bed as much as Shirley's arms yanking her did. They turned toward the partly open door of their bedroom.

"Do we peek?" Laverne whispered.

"You peek, I'll see if I can get all our coat hangers together to make a long pole to grab the phone," Shirley replied, going for the closet.

Approaching the door with be-slippered steps, Laverne eyed the door and the glow of sunlight coming through the windows within the living room. It was still that sharp winter's light, yet it seemed to illumine the room ever so much more. As fatigue faded from her mind, she realized it wasn't just the light from the windows, the room itself had been covered in something light. There was a rustling noise of footsteps that made Laverne stop on the spot - then something red passed by the door. She covered her mouth to keep the squeak down, allowing her to hear a whisper-hissed voice beyond the door.

"You can't roll it like that, Squig, it'll just flop again."

Another voice replied.

"You wanna come over here and show me how it's done then?!"

"Yeah!"

A deep breath filled Laverne and she sighed, turning to Shirley who was still trying to undo one coat hanger into her plan of making a hook-pole. She grabbed Shirl's arm and pulled her toward the door. "It's Lenny and Squiggy, Shirl."

The brunette paused, then dropped the coat hanger in her hands. "They snuck into our apartment?" Laverne nodded. "Again?" Another nod. Shirley grumbled and ranted as quietly as she could a series grievous words that Laverne didn't have the energy to process. She looked at the clock for the time. "It's past nine in the morning, they must have been worried or somethin'. Come on, let's do an entrance."

Shirley furrowed her brow. "Laverne, we're in our own apartment."

"Yeah, but they're always coming in on a cue, right? When one of us says something that kinda describes them, but not really, but kinda does? Maybe we should do it for a change, give'em a scare for scaring us on Christmas morning." Laverne shrugged, emphasizing her point that maybe turnabout was fair play here. Shirley sighed. Then agreed with a nod.

The two girls approached the door to their bedroom, listening as the boys continued moving and shuffling around. Shirley growled, "oooo, if those two opened our presents, I'll-"

Lenny's voice suddenly came over their own private din, as he sighed sadly. "Aww, this ain't gonna work. It's not rolling up how it should."

Squiggy's nasal whine sounded over in response. "It's cotton, Len, what is it supposed to look like?"

"It's supposed to look special, Squig, not just rolled... whatever. We want something that's soft and pretty and magical!" Laverne smirked and opened the door before Shirley could stop her.

"Hello!" Laverne called out to the living room, entering dramatically in her pajamas with Shirley in tow wrapped in a robe over a nightgown. What she expected to be an entrance that took the boys' breath away turned into a reveal that took her own aside. She gasped at the sight of the living room and what the boys had done with it.

All across the room were rolls of cotton sheets, the kind of fake snow decorations one would see in a department store display, but so much of it that it covered their entire floor. And not only that, but extra christmas lights had been hung up (albeit rather messily) along the walls and across the ceiling. Their tree glowed even brighter, the presents untouched. Piles of rounded cotton made into "snow" balls were placed at strategic points around the couch and kitchen counter. There were even painted snowflakes on their windows.   
The boys had, despite its obvious tears and gaps, turned their apartment into a winter wonderland for Christmas.

Lenny's eyes widened at being discovered, his face overcome with panic, then disappointment. "Awww, you ruined the surprise, Laverrrne!" He was kneeling in the center of the living room, trying to roll a larger ball of cotton into the second layer of a snowman. Squiggy, across from him, was having little luck with keeping the bottom layer stable.

Shirley gasped as she took it all in, passing by her friend to enter the room, while Laverne remained speechless. "Boys, what did you do?! Where did you get all this?!"

Immediately Squiggy pointed at Lenny, throwing his best friend right under the bus. "He did it." Lenny scowled at his friend for a moment, before turning back to Laverne and standing up. She looked around at the decorations and felt that in some way, Lenny was offering her the biggest, warmest, just-out-of-the-dryer blanket on the coldest day of the year. When her eyes found his, she found them tentative, tender, and sympathetic. "You missed the snow, right?"

Laverne peered around him at the gift he had given her, overwhelmed by it, and when she returned to face him, she asked, "Where'd you get all this? What happened?" She was agog at the layers of detail, how they'd even gone to the trouble of making snowdrifts out of boxes, had put the cotton snow over their couch, across the floor, carefully around the tree, whose crisp smell completed the effect. Beyond that were more Christmas decorations, from ornaments they'd put on the tree to a few toys, and even a Santa Claus toy that was resting next to Boo Boo Kitty in the windowsill.

Lenny nervously scratched behind his neck. "Well, uh, Squig and I made a deal with a couple of stores for some of our ice cream this week and got some of their decorations. We didn't get a lot, but, I thought it'd help, y'know." She noticed now he was blushing a bit.

"Why'd you go and do all this for? I was just a little homesick." She could hardly believe he'd go to all this trouble; some trouble, maybe, but not that much. He fidgeted reflexively and shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I know. But it's been a big thing, all of us movin' out here. It's kinda scary, even if Squig don't like to admit it..." The two glanced at Squiggy, who was giving Shirley a tour of all the little parts of the setup they made. Lenny turned back to Laverne and went on, "I know there's a lot of times I feel homesick, too, but it's easier for me, y'know? All I gotta do is look at someone and I know I'm gonna be okay." The way he couldn't quite look her in the eye after he said it, made it abundantly clear who that someone was. She would have guessed anyway.

An itchy feeling like tears came on and Lenny put his hands on her arms, suddenly worried instead of just anxious. "Aw, don't cry, it's okay. It won't melt or get all slushie, I promise. Though, uh, we probably shouldn't have used old pizza boxes for the snow drifts." And truthfully, she could smell it, but she didn't care.

"You big dope." Her hand came up to his cheek, resting softly across it. He never stopped smiling at her, his heartfelt gesture a continuous ray of sunshine. No matter where she went or who she was or wherever they ended up, he loved her in a way that was just Lenny being Lenny. Even after countless dates, a crush that she'd had to nip in the bud (yet it never went away), and her own indecision with him; he was committed, always.

And at long last, Laverne couldn't hold back her thanks anymore and in an instant she wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled him to her embrace. His open jacket, a familiar touch and texture, wrapped around her. She felt so safe.

She felt so at home.

Meanwhile, Shirley went around the room, a mixture of "oh" and "ooo!" as she inspected the boys' handiwork, which caused Squiggy to pivot from the expression of a bad child caught being naughty to a tour guide showing everything nice in the world. "And here's the leanin' tower of snowballs. And over here, we made a little bit of cover so as we can do a snowball fight like we used to at the old apartment. See?" To showcase what he meant, Squig grabbed one of the wadded up cotton snowballs and boffed Shirley in the face with it. She frowned, then smiled. "Well, at least it's not sending ice down my back for a change." She grabbed a bundle of cotton herself and chucked it at Squiggy, who ducked for cover.

The four ensued in cotton warfare, with L&S vs. L&S dueling with light bundles that went nowhere. At one point Lenny finally got a hit from Laverne's throw, so he fell into a snow drift of pizza boxes, dramatically flailing as the girls pelted him and Squiggy mourned his fallen friend. Then, Shirley made hot cocoa and they did their best to roll cotton snowmen. When that failed, the girls knelt below the tree and opened their presents together. The boys, awkwardly, had snuck in some of their own, getting a quick invitation to join them. 

To her surprise, Squiggy gave Shirley a picture of Buttercup, the good horse, that Lenny had taken on their last trip to the farm but forgotten to give the girls for Christmas the previous year. "I found it when we was unpacking last month and thought you should have it." Shirl squealed as she put it in the Feeney Family Album right away. 

Then, Lenny gave a box to Squig. Inside: a new comb, on account of the old one getting lost in their move to California. "Aw, Len, you shouldn't have. My hair's perfect the way it is." But with one slide of it through his curls, Squiggy had to admit, it felt pretty good.

Shirley gave Laverne a lovely new sweater, without a monogram. "Just in case you don't like it, I wanted to be practical. Although yellow really is your color, you know." Laverne thanked her and gave her best friend in the whole wide world a quick hug.

Laverne gave Shirl a new journal, one for the new year, that she'd found on San Fernando Boulevard the day she'd bumped into Lenny. It was covered in little painted stars, to symbolize that they were finally in Hollywood (or, well, adjacent to it).

And then, just at the last, Lenny gave Laverne a small slip of paper reading "IOU xxx" - At first she thought it meant a bunch of kisses, only for him to say, "I forgot I owed you a good bottle of beer after you spotted me for last Christmas. Remember?" She didn't, but trusted his unique brain to probably be right about it. "I guess I'll order a Shotz on your tab some time, hanh?" she said.

They sat on the couch and watched Christmas cartoons until the girls shooed the boys out of the apartment so that they could shower. Later on in the day, the four went over to Frank and Edna's for dinner, joined by Carmine and a few more faces that were fast becoming familiar.

The boys gave the girls a lift back in their Ice Cream Truck. Now cooler, as it had fresh stock in the back. Shirley looked at her blonde roomie/best friend/almost-sister and smirked. "Laverne, you're going to do something crazy, aren't you?" 

Laverne realized she'd been staring at something when she turned to Shirl. "What do you mean?" But a little flush in her chest said, 'you know what she means' right back at her. She sheepishly blushed and hung her head. "I'm gonna sleep on it first." At that, Shirley smiled. "Good."

A little while later, the boys were distracted by Squiggy almost making a wrong turn and Lenny trying to give directions (failing miserably). It gave Laverne a moment to lean over to her friend and say, "that was somethin' pretty special they did, though, wasn't it?" Shirley lightly shrugged, but sighed sweetly. "Yeah, it was. Sometimes they're not so bad."

When the foursome arrived back at Laurel Vista, the boys walked the girls back to their door. It was dark in the building that night, so when Lenny led Laverne to the threshold before the apartment, he flicked his head on something and gave a little "Ow!" They looked up and spotted mistle-toe hanging above them, nailed in at some point in the day. When all four of them noticed its presence, Squiggy and Shirley turned to one another and pointed a finger.

"You did this!" she said, eyes wide in shock.

"You want them to get together, too!" he cried, face full of joy.

Laverne blushed, frowning. "Lenny..." But she could see in his own flushed face, nervous as could be, that it wasn't him, either. He added, superfluously, "Laverne, you know I'd never try to trick a kiss outta you like that. Not anymore, but, uh, yeah, there was-uhm, it musta been..."

If she was honest with herself, it was a long time coming to embrace the tension and the sense of familiar adventure that came with Lenny Kosnowski being a part of her life. He was as ever-present as Shirl or Pop or Edna, but unlike Squiggy there were a lot more times Lenny was the great guy that she needed in her life. And on what could have been an awkward and weird Christmas, he was there to show he cared and he understood what she felt. Those were the kind of connections that Laverne DeFazio had learned you held onto, you didn't let go of, and you especially didn't let them leave without a proper thank you.

Thinking about it, and all that the day had given her, she smiled, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling him close. "Good. Because after today, you don't need to." And her lips touched his, the ones she'd been staring at the whole drive home. The kiss sent him clearly into the stratosphere and her into a soft explosion of heat that wrapped her up. His lips were soft, mouth tentative and careful, while hers had a fierceness that took control out of him. It was a claim.

They barely registered that Squiggy and Shirley were arguing whether they should kiss, too, until they parted. Lenny's eyes bugged out and he chuckled deep, raw, before blushing and wiping his cheek. Laverne, for her part, kept it cool in spite of her own internal excitement jumping all over, with a coy smile and a wink.

"That's one you owed me. I'll collect on the other two later."


End file.
